iPad

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Taking a quick skim through iOS 6 and all that has been changed, it brings back memories of searching through iOS 5 when it first came out. Fortunately, the update has a lot more to offer than iOS 5 did. We are going to show you some of the icing on the cake and some things that have changed from iOS 5 to iOS 6 so you will know what to expect when you update to it this Fall.

1. New Application Banners
As soon as you power on your new iOS 6 device, the first thing you will want to do is visit the App Store and download your favorite applications. However, we chose to go into the Settings application and log into Twitter and Facebook first – this lets us install the Twitter and Facebook applications directly from the Settings application without the need to visit the App Store. As you can see, once a new application finishes downloading, a blue banner labeled “New” will appear on all new applications to alert you that they are freshly downloaded. Once you launch the application for the first time, the banner will disappear.

2. A Better Settings App
Also new to iOS 6 is a brand new Settings application. Instead of offering a preferences pane for every application on the device, Apple chose to group certain things together to not only make things easier to follow, but also to save space. Additionally, a Bluetooth toggle has been added to the primary pane under the Wi-Fi toggle. This is great because it used to be a pain to toggle Bluetooth on and off. Additionally, you can see the ‘Do Not Disturb’ feature right above the Notifications preferences pane that will allow you to silence notifications for a duration of time.

3. New Widgets
iOS 6 welcomes two new gorgeous widgets that allow you to quickly Tweet to Twitter or post on Facebook. Both buttons, when tapped, launch an interface from Notification Center where you can type your message and have it posted live. Unlike iOS 5, the Twitter interface is not laggy anymore as Apple seems to have greatly improved its performance. These features can only be done after you have signed into your Facebook and Twitter accounts from the Settings application.

4. Support for A Ton of Picture Sharing
When you go into your Photos application and attempt to share a photo like you would in iOS 5, a new interface that we are not familiar with will appear. The interface includes buttons for Mail, Twitter, Facebook, Weibo, assigning the picture to a contact, printing the picture, copying the picture, or using the picture as a wallpaper. The interface looks good and the flexibility we didn’t have before is just fabulous.

5. A New Maps Interface
Maps has been redesigned with speed and beauty in mind. The Maps application now uses Apple’s own mapping method instead of Google Maps. The maps load up very quickly and they look as great as they function. From the A4 device this demo is being presented on, you will have the ability to move between map view, hybrid view, and satellite view, as turn-by-turn navigation and Flyover view are unfortunately not supported on A4 devices.

6. A New Weather Interface
The Weather application appears the same for the most part, except for the color change and a more noticeable gradient being used. The change is completely cosmetic and doesn’t affect anything functionally.

7. A New App Store and iTunes Interface
The App Store and iTunes have been completely redesigned from the ground up. This is probably a good thing since the App Store seems to load so slowly. The newer App Store interface still takes a while to load up, so it seems heavily dependent on your Internet connection speed. From now on, when you search for a new application to download, you will be accompanied by a built-in download manager, which shows you your download progress from within the App Store application without the App Store auto-closing and taking you to the home screen. Additionally, when the application finishes downloading, the App Store will show you an ‘Open’ button that will launch your newly downloaded application. These are some nice things to have as it was a pain having to re-launch the App Store to download another application after you begin a download.

8. A New Camera Interface
Just like the Weather application, the Camera application sees some color changes. The black interface is the one noticeable change, but nothing appears to have changed functionally.

9. New Music Interface
iOS 6 comes with a completely redone Music application. You might not even recognize Apple’s design in this one. The music controls almost look like something right out of a Cydia theme. The interface has a large visual change, but functionally, everything still works the same.

10. New Timer Function
iOS 6 now includes a button in the Clock application to play one of your song library music tracks when a timer goes off. This button was not available in iOS 5. It will probably be nicer to wake up to music of your choice rather than a loud alarming distraction.

11. The Passbook App
Passbook is the new, highly controversial application that comes with iOS 6. It’s not yet known if this application is going to be a useful one or not, but hopefully it doesn’t end up like Newsstand and being hidden from my home screen. Unfortunately, we don’t have any Boarding Passes, Tickets, Store Cards, or Coupons to show you.

As long as the iPhone GUI is so ugly (big nasty clock, stupid dark blocks at top and bottom of lock screen, ridiculous slider) Ill be jail- breaking. And biteSMS, at least for QR, is the absolute deal breaker. Oh, and VolumeStep (have you tried that? It lets you adjust how big or small the jumps are between volume adjustments). There will always be reasons to jailbreak. This OS is like the others Apple has brought out, lots of stuff but not whole lots of real functionality. For those of us who don't live on the cutting edge of social networking, a lot of it will be useless. They changed the Settings layout? Whoopee.

guys calm down just cause apple didnt support the older devices doesnt mean jailbreak devs wont port half of it over. they will port most of it that doesnt use up ram because thats the main reason they dont port stuff.

Seriously, no one is ever happy. While there may be some features that I would like to see, Apple has consistently upped their game and brought good updates to the table. And the JB community seems to think that there are more of them than there really are. Just because a few thousand (out of millions) of users use a JB app does not mean that functionality needs to be rolled into the iOS interface.

And as for JB'ing in general, I am a tech head geek that loves to mess with his toys, but I haven't used a JB in well over a year because I got sick of having to reformat and reinstall every month or two just because some poorly coded app crashed my phone or caused a process to hang in the background, draining my battery. It really isn't worth the headache. And then having to wait to update and get the improved performance and new toys that non JB folks got with every iOS update ... painful.

I bought my car stock ... Could I add a bunch a crap to it to make it potentially "better"? Sure I could, but I am happy with it the way it is. Same goes for my iDevice. It does what I need it to do. I personally can't wait for iOS 6. And to you JB'ers, have fun with your crappy Google Maps and ginormous GPS apps. I'll be using the new Maps app and enjoying all the benefits of the new iOS while you're still waiting for an untethered JB 10 months after iOS 6 comes out ...

No Streetview in Maps is the biggest drawback for me. For me Streetview was one of the greatest improvements to digital maps.
I don't suppose Apple would allow Google Maps in the app store so I could just use it when I needed Streetview. Apple maps seems quite good but without Streetview I think I'll resist upgrading - not much for the iPhone 4 and I can't on my original iPad. But my iPad3 is turning up any day and Siri is tempting....

I agree - no Streetview is a significant step backward. Most of us that need turn-by-turn directions already have Navigon, TomTom, etc., (which also work offline, i.e., in areas with no cellular reception). Ok, so we now get tight facebook integration built right into the iOS, but having never used facebook, I just can't get excited about that.

I'm also very surprised that we didn't get any kind of shortcut widgets. SBSettings was the most-requested feature and Apple even made a special effort to kill off all 3rd party apps that allowed shortcuts. Now I'm just wondering why? Are shortcuts going to be the one must-have feature in iOS 7?

Seriously, no one is ever happy. While there may be some features that I would like to see, Apple has consistently upped their game and brought good updates to the table. And the JB community seems to think that there are more of them than there really are. Just because a few thousand (out of millions) of users use a JB app does not mean that functionality needs to be rolled into the iOS interface.

And as for JB'ing in general, I am a tech head geek that loves to mess with his toys, but I haven't used a JB in well over a year because I got sick of having to reformat and reinstall every month or two just because some poorly coded app crashed my phone or caused a process to hang in the background, draining my battery. It really isn't worth the headache. And then having to wait to update and get the improved performance and new toys that non JB folks got with every iOS update ... painful.

I bought my car stock ... Could I add a bunch a crap to it to make it potentially "better"? Sure I could, but I am happy with it the way it is. Same goes for my iDevice. It does what I need it to do. I personally can't wait for iOS 6. And to you JB'ers, have fun with your crappy Google Maps and ginormous GPS apps. I'll be using the new Maps app and enjoying all the benefits of the new iOS while you're still waiting for an untethered JB 10 months after iOS 6 comes out ...

Wow, there’s so much wrong here I couldn’t even begin…

Yes, there are some people complaining, but it is because there was no “Wow” feature that took everyone by surprise. The bigger surprise was what has been overlooked. From what I hear from actual developers though, it seems they are beyond happy with the new iOS.

You’re right, not everyone needs to jailbreak, but does stating that the functionality of many JB apps should be rolled in to the iOS mean we thing there “are more of us than there really are.” While anecdotal, every single person I’ve shown the Quick Compose & Quick Reply feature of BiteSMS has asked the question “When will Apple make that a part of the phone?” It is an incredibly intuitive feature. Should every JB app be rolled in to iOS? No, but based on the past Apple sure has thought so for some features.

You reformatted your phone that much? Wow, you must have been installing like mad from Cydia. While I try out a new app every once in a while, my phone stays pretty much the same as the day I jailbreak. Winterboard is just too much for my 3GS & I don’t miss it, while Springtomize gives me tons of options without the slowdown. Most updates are incremental as best & if you can’t have the patience of waiting for a jailbreak, well, that’s a personal problem. In the end it’s okay, for you jailbreaking wasn’t worth it, for me & countless others it is. That’s the bottom line.

Most people do not buy their car stock; you get some options at least. Whether the dealer or the manufacturer adds to the car or not, most people aren’t buying stock. Maybe you have, but I doubt it. As for touting the new Maps & shunning GPS apps, you realize with say, Navigon, I can download 1 state at a time? You also realize that because the maps exist on my phone I can use them without a cellular signal right? Not everything is better because it is stock, FYI.

As to your comment about waiting for iOS6, we all have choice on that. For me, I’ll be upgrading to the New iPhone when it is released & in doing so will lose my jailbreak for a time, but again I’m patient. & every person who jailbreaks can make that choice too. Is it worth losing my jailbreak to go to iOS 6? If yes, they can go if not, they can stay! We all have that choice & to infer that we’ll all just be “waiting for an untethered JB for 10 months” is idiotic.

I hope that social widget makes its way to ios 5.1.1... Hint hint developers.... The photo sharing is also a nice touch. Messages+ type of quick compose would have been nice. Nothing else to appealing though. Thanks for the heads up!!!